Cultural Milestone

Kellogg’s

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

February 19, 1968: Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiered on National Educational Television. Host Fred Rogers created the half-hour educational children’s television series. It hd originated in 1963 as Misterogers on CBC Television, and was later re-branded in 1966 as Misterogers’ Neighborhood and later Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on the regional Eastern Educational Network (CM, see Apr 2; Mr Rogers, see August 31, 2001)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Moore v. Dempsey

February 19, 1923: in Moore v. Dempsey, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-2 that mob-dominated trials violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1919, African-American sharecroppers had gathered in a church at Elaine, Ark., to discuss fairer prices for their products. White men fired into church, leading to three days of fighting and the killing of five white men and more than 100 black men, women and children. A white committee appointed by the governor concluded the black men planned to kill all the whites. More than 700 African-American men were arrested with 67 sent to prison and a dozen to Death Row. The Supreme Court reversed the cases on appeal, concluding the trial had been prejudiced by a white mob outside yelling that if the black men weren’t sentenced to death, the mob would lynch them. The court decision was a major victory for African Americans and the NAACP, which had represented the men. (PBS article) (see June 21)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

1930 Production Code

February 19, 1930: almost from the birth of the movies in America, films faced censorship efforts. Beginning in the early 1920s, leaders of the motion picture industry tried various methods to impose self-censorship on Hollywood films as a strategy to head off government censorship. One version was published in Variety magazine on this day. The 1930 Production Code spelled out specific restrictions on “offensive” language and behavior, particularly regarding sex and crime, and prohibited the ridicule of religion. It also forbade the depiction of illegal drug use, venereal disease, childbirth, and sexual relations between races.

Catholic religious leaders especially had turned up the heat on Hollywood, calling for strict moral standards and a Code of Conduct for movie content. Four years later, on June 13, 1934, facing threats of boycotts of “indecent” films, Hollywood adopted the famous and puritanical Production Code that imposed rigid censorship on American movies that lasted until the 1960s. (see Mar 31)

Speaker Ban Law

February 19, 1968: a three-judge federal district court in Greensboro, North Carolina ruled that state’s Speaker Ban Law was unconstitutional and violated First Amendment protections of free speech. Governor Moore did not appeal the decision. (North Carolina History article) (FS, see Apr 22; RS, see January 14, 1975; North Carolina, see May 17, 1995)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

Executive Order 9066

February 19, 1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed and issued Executive Order 9066 authorizing the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones. Eventually, EO 9066 cleared the way for the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps. By June, the government relocated more than 110,000 Japanese Americans to remote internment camps built by the U.S. military in scattered locations around the country. During the course of World War II, 10 Americans were convicted of spying for Japan. Not one was of Japanese ancestry. (see Internment for expanded story)

Proclamation 4417

February 19, 1976: in a largely symbolic act in the Bicentennial year, President Gerald Ford on this day issued Proclamation 4417, officially rescinding President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, authorizing the evacuation of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast. President Ford rescinded Roosevelt’s order on the same day Roosevelt had acted, thirty-four years later. (See February 19, 1942.) Although a symbolic act, President Ford’s order was an important statement, nonetheless. The treatment of the Japanese-Americans in World War II is regarded by many as the greatest civil liberties tragedy in American history. Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act on August 10, 1988, apologizing to the Japanese Americans and providing reparations of $20,000 to each surviving victim. (Ford Library article) (see May 3)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

February 19, 1963: W.W. Norton and Co published The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. The book gave voice to the discontent and confinement women experienced in their societal roles as housewives and helped to spark the development of the Women’s Liberation Movement. (NYT review) (see Apr 7)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam/South Vietnam Leadership

February 19, 1965: some units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam commanded by General Lâm Văn Phát and Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo launched a coup against General Nguyễn Khánh, the head of South Vietnam’s ruling military junta. Their aim was to install General Trần Thiện Khiêm, a Khánh rival who had been sent to Washington D.C. as Ambassador to the United States to prevent him from seizing power. The attempted coup reached a stalemate, and although the trio did not take power, a group of officers led by General Nguyễn Chánh Thi and Air Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, and hostile to both the plot and to Khánh himself, were able to force a leadership change and take control themselves with the support of American officials, who had lost confidence in Khánh. (V & SVL, see Feb 20)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

February 19 Music et al

Rock Venues

February 19, 1966: Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin performed at the Fillmore Auditorium. (see March 8, 1968)

Billboard Hot 100

Billboard #1 album

February 19 – March 4, 1966 — Herb Albert’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights is the Billboard #1 album. It is one of the most famous album covers of all time. (see Whipped Cream and Other Delights for much more)

The Beatles

Paul McCartney

February 19, 1972: Paul McCartney released “Give Ireland Back to the Irish.” BBD immediately banned the song. (see Mar 23)

George Harrison

February 19, 1981: George Harrison was ordered to pay ABKCO Music the sum of $587,000 for “subconscious plagiarism” between his song, “My Sweet Lord” and the Chiffons “He’s So Fine.” (see May 11)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

The National Planning Conference of Homophile Organizations

February 19, 1966: The National Planning Conference of Homophile Organizations, held in Kansas City, Missouri, on this day, was arguably the first such national meeting of the various homosexual organizations in the U.S. (Enacademic article) (see Apr 1)

Southern Baptist Convention

February 19, 2013: The executive committee of the 16-million member Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution stating that a proposal to alter the Boy Scout ban on gays would “place the…organization at odds with a consistent biblical worldview on matters of human sexuality, making it an organization that would no longer complement, but rather contradict, our belief in God and His moral precepts that serve as the basis for our Christian faith.” (see Mar 26)

Texas

February 19, 2015:

a same-sex couple wed in Texas, despite the state’s ban on gay marriage. Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant were granted a court order for medical reasons: Goodfriend had been diagnosed and treated for ovarian cancer. Judge David Wahlberg ordered Travis County Clerk Dana Debeauvoir to grant a license to the couple because they are “medically fragile.”

later the Texas Supreme Court imposed a stay on county court rulings striking down the state’s gay marriage ban. A short statement on the state supreme court website said the justices had issued a special order: “The Texas Supreme Court has granted a stay of two trial court rulings that Texas’ constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages violates constitutional protections to equal protection and due process of law.” (see Feb 20)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

February 19, 1974: as ordered by the SLA, Randolph Hearst announced that he would create People in Need (P.I.N.), a food distribution program. P.I.N. director Ludlow Kramer expected that the program would feed 100,000 people for twelve months with $2 million. (see Patty Hearst for expanded story)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

February 19, 1975: NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc., was a case decided by the US Supreme Court that ruled that employees in unionized workplaces had the right under the National Labor Relations Act to the presence of a union steward during any management inquiry that the employee reasonably believes may result in discipline. (see Dec 23)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

AIDS & Ryan White

February 19, 1986: Howard County judge refused to issue an injunction against White. (see Ryan White for expanded story)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

February 19, 1998: Ken Starr’s chronology showed presidential friend Vernon Jordan began seeking a private-sector job for Monica Lewinsky within 72 hours of her being listed as a potential witness in the Paula Jones civil rights lawsuit against President Bill Clinton. (see Clinton for expanded story)

February 19 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

February 19, 2008: an ailing Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency after nearly a half-century in power. (see Feb 24)

February 19 Music et al

Billboard Hot 100

From Songfacts dot com: The song was released as a single on Christmas day 1965…. Speaking about the song in the September 16, 2005 issue of Goldmine magazine, Lou Christie said: “And they didn’t even like it! (Label head) Lenny Shear threw it in the wastebasket and said it was a piece of crap! So we put up our own money to get it played around the country, and it started taking off once it got played. Three months later, Lenny was taking a picture with me for Billboard magazine, handing me a gold record. I loved that.”

February 19 Music et al

Billboard #1 album

February 19 – March 4, 1966 — Herb Albert’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights is the Billboard #1 album. It is one of the most famous album covers of all time. (see Whipped Cream and Other Delights for much more)

February 19 Music et al

The Beatles

Paul McCartney and Wings

February 19, 1972: Paul McCartney released “Give Ireland Back to the Irish.” BBC immediately banned the song.

From Songfacts dot com: Music and political historian Alexander Baron writes: “In March 1972, the British music weekly Melody Maker published a 2 page article called “CENSORED” which reported on a number of songs that had been banned – that the BBC, the official British government broadcasting body, had refused to play. Surprisingly, most of the article was devoted to a Paul McCartney composition, “Give Ireland Back To The Irish.”

The song was written as a protest against Bloody Sunday, a notorious incident which took place in Northern Ireland on January 30 that year in which British troops shot dead a number of protesters. At the time of the Melody Maker article the song was #23 in the paper’s chart and #19 in the BBC chart but was banned as “unsuitable for broadcasting.” The DJ Alan Freeman refused even to mention the song directly, and in his rundown of the Radio One chart referred to it only as “a song by a group called Wings.” (see Mar 23) (also see Sunday Bloody Sunday for more about the event)

February 19 Music et al

George Harrison

February 19, 1981: George Harrison was ordered to pay ABKCO Music the sum of $587,000 for “subconscious plagiarism” between his song, “My Sweet Lord” and the Chiffons “He’s So Fine.”

From Song Facts dot com: In 1976, Bright Tunes Music sued Harrison because this sounded too much like the 1963 Chiffons hit “He’s So Fine.” Bright Tunes was controlled by The Tokens, who set it up when they formed the production company that recorded “He’s So Fine” – they owned the publishing rights to the song.

During the convoluted court case, Harrison explained how he composed the song: He said that in December 1969, he was playing a show in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the group Delaney and Bonnie, whose piano player was Billy Preston (who contributed to some Beatles recordings). Harrison said that he started writing the song after a press conference when he slipped away and started playing some guitar chords around the words “Hallelujah” and “Hare Krishna.” He then brought the song to the band, who helped him work it out as he came up with lyrics. When he returned to London, Harrison worked on Billy Preston’s album Encouraging Words. They recorded the song for the album, which was released on Apple Records later in 1970, and Harrison filed a copyright application for the melody, words and harmony of the song. Preston’s version remained an album cut, and it was Harrison’s single that was the huge hit and provoked the lawsuit, which was filed on February 10, 1971, while the song was still on the chart.

In further testimony, Harrison claimed he got the idea for “My Sweet Lord” from The Edwin Hawkins Singers’ “Oh Happy Day,” not “He’s So Fine.” (see May 11)